Building on the work of Inglehart and colleagues (e.g., Inglehart, 1971;Inglehart & Welzel, 2005), Welzel (2013) sets out a step-by-step theory explaining how democracies arise from processes of modernization. The intermediary stages in the causal chain he sets out explain the connection between action resources and emancipatory values. In short, Welzel provides strong evidence that people must first have the material, intellectual, and connective resources to exercise certain freedoms before they develop values that will motivate them to seek out those freedoms. While we are convinced by much of Welzel's argument, we also note a substantial Welzel's (2013) theory of Human Empowerment elucidates a step-by-step process in which individuals gain the means, motivation, and guarantees to exercise universal freedoms and civic agency. The human empowerment process is initiated with the attainment of action resources which provide people with the means to overcome constraints imposed by resource scarcity. With an increase in action resources comes an increase in existential security and the motivation to look beyond the fulfillment of physiological needs. Existential security encourages